Communication networks for businesses or personal residences sometimes include network devices that have the potential to permit unwanted intrusions if not protected by security measures. These instructions may be in the form of unwanted faxes, computer generated audio surveys, computer generated audio advertisements, and/or direct connections to a data modem. Such network devices include fax machines that may be abused by telemarketers that transmit numerous unsolicited sales brochures and marketing surveys. The fax machines may be employed by an organization (e.g., a mid to large size business) as a stand-alone device, and/or as a personal computer (PC) configured with a modem to receive and/or transmit facsimile data. Further, PCs configured with one or more modems adapted to receive incoming data connections and/or facsimile data introduce a potential security risk to the network if such PCs are also communicatively connected to the company network via high speed data cables and/or internal wireless network(s). Residential and business customers may receive unwanted computer generated audio surveys or advertisements that may not pose a security risk, but are a nuisance to customers.
Mid to large size businesses sometimes allocate a bank of numerically consecutive telephone numbers (lines) dedicated to voice and/or fax machines in various locations throughout that business. For example, a block of one-thousand consecutive telephone numbers may be allocated to a workforce of a company department, while an additional block of fifty consecutive telephone numbers may be allocated to provide facsimile services for that workforce. Additionally, PCs allocated to each of the workforce members may include a modem as standard equipment of the PC that, if connected to a telephone line, introduces a potential manner of external access to that PC.
As a business adapts to changing market forces, various departments may experience significant change that results in workforce reallocation, turnover, and/or departmental reorganization. As a result, some of the allocated lines for the workforce members may be re-routed to alternate company locations, left unutilized due to workforce turnover, or forgotten altogether. While some organizations may track the utilization of allocated lines and/or the resources such lines support, the task of tracking numerous lines is labor intensive and tedious. Even when the original block of, for example, one-thousand lines is known, determining where each line is connected, if connected at all, may involve a significant amount of manual tracking efforts.